The religion of peace and mercy in action -Christians in lands across Middle East face uncertain time
Telegraph
Christians in lands across Middle East face uncertain time this
Christmas In the birthplace of Christianity, present fear and future
uncertainty threaten populations which have praised Christ for
centuries.
By Richard Spencer in Amman, Samer al-Atrush in Cairo and Rob Crilly in
Bethlehem
Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Dec 2009
Across the Middle East, a Christian population that stood at 20 per cent
a century ago has now sunk to under five per cent Photo: AFP
Iraqi military personnel stand guard outside a cathedral in Kirkuk
Photo: AFP/GETTY Rima, whose sister was murdered by Saddam Hussein's
officers, is going to America. Hani, another Christian, is off to Sweden
after being kidnapped by a Baghdad militia. Michael Marody, whose cousin
was likewise abducted but did not come back alive, is heading for
Australia. War-torn, anarchic Iraq, however, is not the only place in
the Middle East that will see fewer Christians celebrating this
Christmas. The region that was Christianity's birthplace is witnessing
an unprecedented modern-day exodus – victims of radical Islam, the
global economic crisis, and new currents of sectarian feeling from both
Arabs and Jews alike.
In Bethlehem, the lights are on for Christmas, but its resident
Christians have dwindled from four-fifths of the population since the
Second World War to just a quarter today. One by one, the carpenters who
hand-craft the wooden figurines that feature in Nativity scenes
worldwide are shutting up shop, hamstrung by the difficulties of working
in the Palestinian West Bank.
"Every year we have obstacles," complained Elias Giacaman, a Bethlehem
woodcarver who can trace his ancestry to the Crusades. Crates loaded
with unsold likenesses of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus fill the floor
of his workshop, which has cut its workforce from 18 to six.
"After the Intifada –
and three or four years of curfews – there was the
Lebanon war, the economic crisis and all the time we have the (security)
wall. Last year things picked up, but this year it is bad again."
Such tales of misery are repeated both in neighbouring cities and
neighbouring lands. In Jerusalem, Orthodox Jews spit on passers-by
wearing crucifixes. In the other Palestinian enclave of Gaza, Christian
shops have been firebombed. In Egypt, meanwhile, a string of businesses
owned by Coptic Christians were burned down in riots in the southern
province of Qena last month. "Copts are in a continuous state of fear,"
said the diocesan bishop, Anba Kirillos.
Pope Benedict touched on the insecurities of his Middle Eastern flock
during a tour of the region earlier this year. "The Catholic community
here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which
affect all the people of the Middle East," he remarked.
But while the Pontiff's statement sought to avoid finger-pointing, Iraqi
Christians like Mr Marody are less hesitant. "We were driven out," he
said bluntly. "They bombed our churches. They killed us deliberately so
we would leave. It was organised." The sweeping sectarian violence of
Iraq is well documented, though the suffering of its once million-strong
Christian community has been less prominently recorded. As many 600,000
have fled abroad since 2003, while hundreds of thousands more have moved
to safer areas in the north, abandoning once thriving Christian
communities in Mosul, Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
Mr Marody's cousin in Baghdad was particularly vulnerable, as he owned a
liquor store. It was a trade that Christians traditionally dominated
during Saddam's secular rule, but which put them in the firing line
post-war as the city became dominated by Islamist militias. At first,
after he was seized from his car, a ransom was demanded. Later, when the
family were unable to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars demanded,
they were told to go to a roundabout in Sadr City, Baghdad's
impoverished Shia suburb. They, they found his body – bearing not just
gunshot wounds but burn marks from cigarette ends. "An artist draws
cartoons in Denmark, and they blow up churches in Iraq," Mr Marody said
bitterly. "A five-year-old child was killed – not a Danish child, but
an Iraqi child. "The Pope talks about Muslims and mosques in Germany,
and we have explosions two or three days later. We are the biggest
losers of this war, and yet we are the original inhabitants." Mr Marody,
Rima and Hani are all members of the Chaldean Catholic church, one of
the region's vast number of sects, whose antiquity is shown by its
continued use of Aramaic, the ancient language of Christ. As he spoke to
The Sunday Telegraph, the Aramaic liturgy drifted out from Mass in the
small church where he worships in Amman, Jordan, where many Chaldeans
have fled and where Mr Marody, too, is waiting to join his family in
Australia.
There is little evidence of a widespread Muslim resentment towards
Iraq's Christians, far from the only victims of the country's post-war
sectarian violence, which is estimated to have cost around 80,000 lives.
However, they have sometimes been targeted by al-Qaeda-backed extremist
groups. Last week, bombers struck two churches in Mosul, killing a baby
and wounding at least 40 people, among them schoolchildren.
In similar attacks in July, a wave of six simultaneous bombings of
churches killed five people and injured scores more. Christian
government officials have also been singled out. Last year, Paulos Faraj
Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, was kidnapped after his
bodyguards and driver were shot dead. His own body was found in a
shallow grave two weeks later. The threats, though, came not just from
violence motivated by religion. Ordinary Christian families, who did
well in Saddam Hussein's Iraq as doctors, teachers and academics, were
also uniquely vulnerable to Iraq's post-war criminal gangs. As
middle-class professionals, they were attractive targets for kidnappers
– and because they lack the tribal structures of Iraq's Muslim
communities, they were less able to organise street militias to deter
such attacks in the first place.
Across the Middle East, a Christian population that stood at 20 per cent
a century ago has now sunk to under five per cent. Yet the rise of
radical Islam is not the only factor. In the Occupied Territories,
Christians suffer alongside Muslims from Israeli policies, most recently
the new "security wall". Arab priests claim that Israel deliberately
turns a blind eye to violence against Christians, hoping they will leave
and make it easier to portray the conflict as one between Jews and
Muslims. That is denied, but incidents of harassment by extremist
Orthodox Jews cannot be. Father Athanasius Macora, a Franciscan friar in
Jerusalem's Old City, speaks sadly of the latest trend: spitting attacks
by young Orthodox on anyone seen wearing a crucifix. "It has happened to
me quite a number of times in the past six months, sometimes once a
week," he said. "It's very ugly, especially when it's kids of nine or
ten doing it."
At the other extreme, Christians in Gaza are an
increasingly beleaguered community of just a few thousand. Islamic
radicals have attacked, among other targets, a Christian bookstore,
killing its owner in 2007. Such attacks are condemned by Hamas, the
ruling power in Gaza, but little action is taken. The political equation
with Western policies is, perhaps, simplest in Egypt, where the Coptic
Christian community, ten per cent of Egypt's total by most estimates, is
closely associated with America and Western backers of its authoritarian
ruler of 28 years, Hosni Mubarak. As Mr Mubarak keeps a tight lid on
opponents in the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic organisations, the
Christian community is an easy target for reprisals. Sometimes, local
disputes turn into conflict, as was the case in Qena last month, when
Muslims attacked a Christian neighbourhood after accusing a local Copt
of rape. But sometimes the violence is more directly religious: last
year, Muslims rioted against a new church that was due to be consecrated
in the Cairo suburb of Ain Shams. It remains closed to this day – a
serious blow in a country where to build a church requires special
presidential permission and years of patience. Those who have studied
the long-term decline of the Christian presence in the Middle East
insist that demographics and economics are the key factors, rather than
any kind of organised sectarian conspiracy. They point out that
Christians also have fewer babies, and their smaller numbers in the
first place mean that emigration is more noticeable.
"Because they are smaller groups, a hundred Christians leaving makes a
big difference," said Fiona McCallum, an academic at St Andrews
University who is writing a book on the state of Christianity in Jordan
and Syria. "It's important not to single out the Christians – other
minorities are having the same problems."
Many Christians say life is not necessarily easy in the West, and there
are cases of exiles returning to Jordan and Syria. But for most, there
is now an émigré community abroad, such in Detroit, Michigan, which
now has the biggest population of Chaldean Catholics outside their
original home.
"I fear the extinction of Christianity in Iraq and the Middle East,"
said the Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, Jean Benjamin Sleiman, at the
time of the Pope's Middle Eastern visit in May. Father Remon Moussalli,
Amman's resident Chaldean priest, says his flock is already falling in
number, with exiles moving on faster than they arrive. He sees few
crumbs of comfort. "There's a Satanic stance against the Christians,
maybe not just in Iraq but in all the Middle East," he said. "The
Christians are like the peaceful Muslims, but there are no Christian
militias to protect them."
_How Many People Have Been Killed in the Past 2
Months? | NewsReal Blog_
(http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/27/how-many-people-have-been-killed-by-i
slamofascists-in-the-past-2-months/)
How Many People Have Been Killed in the Past 2 Months?
2009 December 27
tags: _News_ (http://newsrealblog.com/tag/news/) , _Politics_
(http://newsrealblog.com/tag/politics/) , _Terrorist Attacks_
(http://newsrealblog.com/tag/terrorist-attacks/)
by _David Horowitz_ (http://newsrealblog.com/author/winniehorowitz/)
(http://newsrealblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/hasan.jpg)
_List of Islamic Terror Attacks For the Past 2 Months_
(http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/TheList.htm)List of Islamic Terror Attacks For the Past 2 MonthsDate Country City Killed Injured Description 2010.01.01 Pakistan Shah Hason Khel 105 100 Children are amply represented among over one hundred spectators massacred at a volleyball tournament by a Fedayeen suicide bomber. 2009.12.31 Thailand Yala 2 0 Two civilians riding a motorbike are shot to death by Islamic militants. 2009.12.31 Pakistan Kalat 2 2 Two oil truck drivers are shot to death by Muslim radicals. 2009.12.31 Afghanistan Uruzgan 6 0 Six civilians are beheaded by Islamic hardliners. 2009.12.30 Pakistan Bajaur 1 0 A tribal elder is brutally murdered by the Taliban and dropped by the roadside. 2009.12.30 India Baramulla 4 0 Hizb-ul-Mujahideen gunmen open up on four Indian cops at point-blank range, leaving all four dead. 2009.12.30 Iraq Ramadi 27 105 Twin suicide blasts take down over twenty-five Iraqis and leave over one hundred others with injuries, including lost limbs. 2009.12.30 Iraq Khalis 7 25 Dedicated Sunnis bomb a Shia religious festival, leaving seven dead. 2009.12.30 Afghanistan Kandahar 5 0 A female reporter is among five Canadians killed by a Taliban roadside bomb. 2009.12.30 Thailand Pattani 2 0 Two volunteers guarding teachers are taken down in a Mujahideen bombing. 2009.12.30 Afghanistan Khost 8 6 Eight American civilians are murdered by a Shahid suicide bomber at a gymnasium. 2009.12.29 Iraq Tal Massoud 5 0 Four people are shot to death and one beheaded by suspected al-Qaeda elements. 2009.12.29 Afghanistan Heart 1 2 A terrorist in an Afghan army uniform opens fire on three unsuspecting NATO soldiers, killing one. 2009.12.29 Iraq Baghdad 4 18 Two woman are among four Iraqis murdered in two Jihad attacks. 2009.12.29 Pakistan Lahore 2 0 A man slits his daughter's throat, and stabs her lover to death, over a suspected illicit affair. 2009.12.28 Pakistan Karachi 43 83 More than forty people in a religious procession are sent straight to Allah by a Fedayeen suicide bomber. 2009.12.28 Nigeria Bauchi 3 12 At least three security forces are killed during attacks by a local Islamist sect. 2009.12.28 Pakistan Orakzai 9 6 Taliban hardliners assault a village, killing nine defense volunteers. 2009.12.28 Iraq Mosul 2 0 Jihadi gunmen take down two cement workers. 2009.12.28 Afghanistan Badghis 2 3 Two local cops are murdered in a Taliban ambush. 2009.12.28 Pakistan Chamarkand 2 5 Two local soldiers are killed in a Taliban rocket attack on their checkpoint. 2009.12.27 Thailand Yala 2 1 Islamists shoot two men to death as they are riding a motorcycle. 2009.12.27 Pakistan Sadda 6 0 Islamic fundamentalists blow up a family home, killing six occupants, including five young children. 2009.12.27 Pakistan Muzaffarabad 15 100 A Shahid suicide bomber blows himself up at a rival mosque, taking at least fifteen innocents with him. 2009.12.27 Iraq Touz Khormato 5 25 Five Shia pilgrims are blown to bits by Sunni terrorists. 2009.12.27 Iran Tehran 9 60 Basij militia and Islamic state police fire into a crowd of protesters, killing at least nine. 2009.12.26 Thailand Pattani 1 0 A man is murdered in front of his home by Muslim separatists. 2009.12.26 Iraq Baghdad 6 22 Two bombs, one near a tent distributing food to Shia pilgrims, leave six Iraqis dead. 2009.12.26 Pakistan Karachi 0 26 Shiite radicals are suspected of detonating a roadside bomb that injures some twenty-six people at a funeral. 2009.12.25 Iraq Baghdad 10 51 Ten Shiite pilgrims are murdered in three separate bombing attacks by sectarian rivals. 2009.12.25 Pakistan Peshawar 2 0 Islamists gun down two local cops. 2009.12.25 Pakistan Kalar Kahar 0 60 About sixty Christians are injured when a Muslim mob attacks them during Christmas prayers. 2009.12.25 Iraq Mosul 3 0 Three unarmed census workers are shot to death in cold blood by Sunni insurgents. 2009.12.24 Iraq Mosul 1 0 A Christian is gunned down in front of his home by Islamists. 2009.12.24 Somalia Mogadishu 6 25 Six civilians are killed during an attack by Hizb al-Islam fundamentalists. 2009.12.24 Pakistan Rawalpindi 1 2 A 6-year-old girl is dismembered by a suicide bomber. 2009.12.24 Iraq Kirkuk 4 0 Four Iraqis are gunned down by suspected al-Qaeda militants. 2009.12.24 Iraq Hilla 25 105 A crowded bus station is the target of Sunni bombers, who leave twenty-five Iraqis dead and nearly one hundred more in agony. 2009.12.24 Afghanistan Kandahar 8 3 A Shahid suicide bomber on a horse car murders eight innocent people. 2009.12.24 Israel Einav 1 0 An Israeli father of seven is shot to death in his car by Palestinian terrorists. 2009.12.24 Pakistan Peshawar 4 24 A suicide bomber detonates near a Christian school, killing four others. 2009.12.24 Afghanistan Paktika 2 0 Two civilians are murdered by Jihadi roadside bombers. 2009.12.24 Iraq Baghdad 12 53 Jihadis murder a dozen mourners when they bomb two separate funerals. 2009.12.23 Afghanistan Helmand 3 5 Three innocents are cut down by a Taliban bomb planted on a bicylce. 2009.12.23 Iraq Baghdad 5 46 Sunni bombers murder five Shia pilgrims in three separate attacks. 2009.12.23 Afghanistan Spin Boldak 2 3 Talibanis take down two civilians with a roadside bomb. 2009.12.23 Afghanistan Helmand 3 4 Three civilians are killed when fundamentalists detonate a bomb at a bazaar. 2009.12.23 Iraq Mosul 2 0 A bomb placed near an ancient Christian church kills two people. 2009.12.22 Thailand Pattani 1 1 Islamic gunmen fire into a family home, killing a 3-year-old girl and seriously injuring her sister. 2009.12.22 Thailand Pattani 1 0 A 37-year-old father is shot full of holes by Muslim militants after dropping his children off at school. 2009.12.22 India Pampore 2 1 Hizbul Mujahideen militants shoot two local cops to death. 2009.12.22 Pakistan Peshawar 3 16 A woman is among three people at a press club blown to bits by a Shahid suicide bomber. 2009.12.22 Iraq Iskandariya 1 4 A civilian dies from shrapnel injures after Jihadis detonate a bomb on a minibus. 2009.12.21 Iraq Tal Afar 4 5 A Fedayeen suicide bomber takes out four Iraqis. 2009.12.21 Yemen Abyan 2 9 al-Qaeda militants booby-trap an area with explosives, killing two civilians. 2009.12.21 Somalia Mogadishu 5 0 Five Somalis near a minibus are murdered by al-Shabaab bombers. 2009.12.20 Iraq Mosul 2 0 Mujahideen gun down two local cops. 2009.12.20 Somalia Mogadishu 1 3 One Somali is killed in a mortar attack by Islamic militia. 2009.12.19 Thailand Narathiwat 3 2 Three Buddhists are incinerated when Muslim insurgents blow up a gas tank next to their truck. 2009.12.19 Pakistan Poonch 1 2 An Indian border guard is shot by a Muslim sniper from Pakistan. 2009.12.19 Iraq Mosul 3 1 Jihadi gunmen take down three Iraqis in separate attacks. 2009.12.18 Pakistan Lower Dir 15 28 Children are among fifteen people blown to bits a mosque by a Shahid suicide bomber. 2009.12.18 Somalia Mogadishu 2 4 Two civilians are killed when a mortar fired by suspected Islamic militia strikes a house. 2009.12.18 Iraq Sulaimaniyah 1 0 A civilian is gunned down on his doorstep by Muslim terrorists. 2009.12.18 Pakistan Haripur 3 0 A man and his wife are among three killed in their home by suspected Islamic hardliners. 2009.12.18 India Pulwama 2 0 Two people are dragged from their homes and murdered by Mujahideen. One has his throat slit. 2009.12.17 Thailand Yala 2 0 A 2-year-old girl is gunned down along with her father by Holy Warriors. 2009.12.17 Afghanistan Kandahar 7 3 Five women are among seven people murdered by Taliban roadside bombers. 2009.12.17 Ingushetia Nazran 2 24 Children are among the casualties of a suicide bombing. A separate shooting leaves two dead. 2009.12.17 Iraq Baghdad 1 10 A pedestrian is killed by a roadside bomb. 2009.12.17 Pakistan Bara Tehsil 3 5 Three security force personnel are murdered in Taliban ambushes. 2009.12.17 Iraq Mosul 1 0 A 30-year-old Christian man is shot to death in cold blood by Mujahideen. 2009.12.16 Afghanistan Herat 4 0 Four local cops are slaughtered by a Taliban roadside blast. 2009.12.16 Iraq Baghdad 2 5 Sunni bombers take down two Iraqis riding on a bus. 2009.12.16 Pakistan Khyber 4 27 Fundamentalists throw grenades into a music concert, killing at least four people. 2009.12.16 Thailand Yala 3 0 Three men are shot to death in separate shooting attacks by Islamic insurgents. 2009.12.15 Afghanistan Kabul 7 44 A suicide car bomber takes out seven people standing outside a hotel. 2009.12.15 Afghanistan Gardez 5 0 Five people are blown to bits by Jihadi bombers. 2009.12.15 Iraq Mosul 4 40 Four Christians are killed when Islamic bombers target a church and Christian school. 2009.12.15 Pakistan Dera Ghazi Khan 33 60 Thirty-three shoppers at an outdoor market are blown apart by a Fedayeen suicide car bomber. 2009.12.15 Afghanistan Helmand 2 0 Two British soldiers are killed by a suicide bomber as they are walking down a street. 2009.12.15 Iraq Mosul 2 0 A woman is among two people incinerated by a thermal bomb. 2009.12.15 Somalia Bossasso 3 8 Suspected Islamists blow up a pick-up full of local soldiers, killing three. 2009.12.15 Iraq Nineveh 3 0 Muslim radicals throw grenades into a police patrol, brutally killing three Iraqis. 2009.12.15 India Shopian 1 0 A 21-year-old woman is gunned down in front of her family by Islamic militants. 2009.12.14 Iraq Balad Ruz 22 29 A female suicide bomber ends the lives of nearly two-dozen innocent people in a residential area. 2009.12.14 Iraq Baghdad 13 33 Jihadi bombers take down thirteen Iraqis with successive blasts. 2009.12.14 Afghanistan Lashkar Gah 16 0 Sixteen police officers are killed in two terror attacks by Sunni fundamentalists. 2009.12.14 Thailand Pattani 1 0 A 37-year-old woman is slashed to death by Muslim radicals. 2009.12.14 Iraq al-Manari 4 0 A man and his family are murdered in their home by suspected al-Qaeda. 2009.12.14 Thailand Narathiwat 1 0 Muslims gun down a 38-year-old Buddhist. 2009.12.14 Thailand Pattani 2 0 Two men are shot to death by Islamic militants, one in his home, the other at a barber shop. 2009.12.13 Iraq Mosul 2 21 A Fedayeen suicide bomber murders two young police recruits. 2009.12.13 Iraq Fallujah 2 15 Islamic bombers manage to kill two Iraqis with a roadside blast. 2009.12.13 Somalia Afgoye 1 0 A 48-year-old man is pelted to death with stones by Hezb al-Islam for adultery. 2009.12.13 Thailand Pattani 2 0 Two civilians are shot to death by Islamic militants in separate attacks. 2009.12.12 Iraq Khalis 1 2 A farmer is shot to death by Islamic militants. 2009.12.12 Iraq Kirkuk 3 4 An IED attack leaves three Iraqis dead. 2009.12.11 Iraq Yusufiyah 6 21 A car bomb near a shop takes out six Iraqis. 2009.12.11 Iraq Baghdad 1 3 Jihadis plant a bomb under a family car, killing the father and injuring three relatives. 2009.12.11 Afghanistan Paktika 5 15 Five people are blown to bits by a Shahid suicide bomber. 2009.12.10 Thailand Narathiwat 3 8 Three Buddhist women are torn to shreds by a remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle outside a restaurant. 2009.12.09 Iraq Baghdad 4 11 Two streetsweepers are among four Iraqis murdered by Islamic bombers in attacks on a library and minibus. 2009.12.09 Thailand Pattani 1 0 A civilian is shot to death in his car by Muslim militants. 2009.12.09 Thailand Yala 1 17 A series of bombs rocks several neighborhoods. A bomb disposal technician is killed. 2009.12.09 Iraq Mosul 2 0 Two Christian brothers are kidnapped and shot to death by Muslim terrorists. 2009.12.08 Pakistan Multan 12 20 A dozen Pakistanis are blown to bits by Taliban bombers. 2009.12.08 Pal. Auth. Jerash 1 0 A man stabs his 30-year-old sister to death over suspected immoral behavior. 2009.12.08 Iraq Baghdad 127 448 Five car bombs, one outside a fine arts center, leave at least one-hundred and twenty Iraqis dead and nearly five hundred more in agony. 2009.12.07 Pakistan Peshawar 11 45 Eleven people at a courthouse are blown to bits by a Fedayeen suicide bomber. 2009.12.07 Pakistan Lahore 50 150 At least fifty people are incinerated by twin bombings at a crowded marketplace. 2009.12.07 Thailand Pattani 1 4 A pro-government cleric is gunned down by Islamic separatists. 2009.12.07 Thailand Narathiwat 2 11 A Buddhist man and woman are murdered by Muslim bombers at a busy market. 2009.12.07 Iraq Baghdad 8 40 Seven children are among eight dead when Sunni radicals bomb a Shia school. 2009.12.07 Iraq Tarmiyah 8 0 Six Iraqis are gunned down by al-Qaeda. Two more bodies are discovered in Kirkuk. 2009.12.07 Iraq Tarmiyah 1 4 A woman is blown murdered in her home by Mujahid bombers. 2009.12.07 India Baramulla 1 0 Muslim terrorists gun down a political worker outside his home. 2009.12.07 Pakistan Karachi 1 0 A Shia leader is shot to death by Sunni rivals. 2009.12.06 Somalia Bosaso 1 0 A cleric is assassinated by suspected Islamic militia. 2009.12.06 Pakistan Bajaur 2 2 The Taliban murder two tribesmen outside a mosque. 2009.12.06 Iraq Abu Ghraib 4 0 Four local police manning a checkpoint are machine-gunned to death at point-blank range. 2009.12.05 Iraq Mosul 5 1 Mujahideen shoot five people to death including a mother and an elderly civilian. 2009.12.05 Philippines Jolo 1 12 One person is killed when suspected Abu Sayyaf militants set off a bomb. 2009.12.04 Iraq Tuz Khormato 1 0 An ethnic minority member is gunned down in his home by Islamic terrorists. 2009.12.04 Pakistan Rawalpindi 40 86 Seventeen children at a mosque are among nearly forty people cut down in a barbaric shooting and bombing attack by Sunni hardliners. 2009.12.04 Pakistan Mohmand Agency 6 13 Mujahideen bombers take out six members of a wedding party traveling in a mini-bus. 2009.12.04 Dagestan Khasavyurt 2 7 A civilian having lunch at a cafe is among two people murdered by Muslim terrorists in separate attacks. 2009.12.04 India Srinagar 0 0 Al-Nasireen gunmen assassinate a political leader outside his home. 2009.12.04 Jordan Amman 1 0 A 34-year-old woman, nine months pregnant, is stabbed to death by her brother over alleged adultery. 2009.12.03 Thailand Pattani 3 0 A 17-year-old boy is among three members of a family brutally gunned down in their home by Islamic separatists. 2009.12.03 Pakistan Karol 1 0 A Christian man is shot to death by Muslims after refusing to 'embrace' Islam. 2009.12.03 Ingushetia Malgobek 1 0 A government official is assassinated by Islamic militants. 2009.12.03 Iraq Baghdad 1 6 Mujahideen blow up a civilian at a market. 2009.12.03 Somalia Mogadishu 22 46 Doctors and students are among twenty-two people blown to bits at a medical school graduation by a Shahid. 2009.12.03 Iraq Tikrit 11 15 A Fedayeen suicide bomber blows himself up at a packed market, taking eleven innocents with him. 2009.12.02 Pakistan Islamabad 2 11 A young man straps explosives to his body and detonates at the entrance of a naval complex, killing two security guards. 2009.12.02 Iraq
Pakistan's Christians receive text messages warning of a "special
Christmas present" - Jihad Watch
Pakistan's Christians receive text messages warning of a "special
Christmas present"
Islamic Tolerance Alert: Already left homeless by a Muslim rampage in
August that saw eight Christians burned alive, the remaining Christians
of Gojra cannot celebrate Christmas without looking over their
shoulders. "Pakistan Christians celebrate Christmas in fear," by Elena
Becatoros for the Associated Press, December 24:
GOJRA, Pakistan - No Christmas decorations brighten the tent camp
sheltering Christians left homeless by the worst violence against
minorities in Pakistan this year. Instead, there is a pervasive sense of
fear.
The Christians have received cell phone text messages warning them to
expect a "special Christmas present," they say, and are terrified of
their tents being torched or their church services being bombed.
"Last year I celebrated Christmas full of joy," said Irfan Masih,
cradling his young son among the canvas shelters and open ditches of the
camp. But now "the fear that we may again be attacked is in our hearts.
"They are threatening us, (saying) 'We will again attack you and will
not let you out of homes, we will burn you inside this time,'" he said.
It was the fires that most traumatized Gojra's Christian Colony, a
neighborhood in the heart of this Punjabi city about 220 miles (354
kilometers) southwest of Islamabad. In early August, hundreds of Muslims
rampaged through the dirt streets, looting and torching homes as
panicked residents tried to flee and thick black smoke rose into the
air.
Eight Christians died -- seven of them from one family trapped in a
burning home.
"We are going to celebrate Christmas in sorrow because the whole family
is hurt by this," said Almas Hameed, whose father was shot dead during
the riots. His wife, two of his children and members of his brother's
family all burned to death.
The attack, which officials said was incited by a banned radical
Islamist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, followed rumors that Christians
had torn pages of a Quran, an act considered sacrilegious by Muslims.
The ensuing carnage drew condemnation from the Pope and Pakistan's prime
minister, and highlighted how religious extremism has left the country's
minority groups increasingly vulnerable.
Christians -- Protestants and Catholics among them -- make up less than
5 percent of Muslim-majority Pakistan's 175 million people.
Christians say more than 100 homes were burned and looted in Gojra and
the nearby village of Korian. While many homes have been rebuilt using
state money, dozens of families are still living in tents, waiting for
construction on their houses to finish.
Both those who have moved back into their homes and the ones still in
the camp say they are still regularly threatened -- phone calls telling
them to stop pressing for those responsible to be convicted, or else;
armed men turning up at their homes; text messages on their cell phones
promising a "special Christmas present;" rocks thrown at the tents in
the night.
"When we sleep at night the fear never leaves our heart," said Safia
Riaz, a 30-year-old whose father died of a heart attack during the
riots. The violence "has stuck in our minds. Tension remains -- God
forbid that it will happen again."
Strict security was being put into place during Christmas, said police
officer Mohammed Tahir of the Faisalabad regional police headquarters,
who rejected claims that authorities were unable to protect the
minority.
Security has been ramped up across the country anyway, as this year
Christmas falls during the Islamic month of Muharram, which is often
marred by bombings and fighting between Pakistan's Sunni Muslims and its
Shiite minority.
But Gojra's Christians have little faith in the police, who were accused
of standing by during the worst of August's violence.
"The police already didn't save us before," said Ashar Faras, a
33-year-old who works as a chef in an Islamabad guesthouse....
Posted by Marisol on December 24, 2009 6:32 AM | 5 Comments
Jihad Watch
Woman sold in public auction in Pakistan -- for $3,200
Here is the apotheosis of the Islamic tendency to treat women as
commodities -- a tendency with deep roots in the Qur'an and Sunnah.
"Girl sold in open auction," by Sikander Khoso for The Nation, December
13 (thanks to Silvester):
JACOBABAD - A 20-year-old girl was auctioned at village Badani Bhutto of
Taluka Kashmore in consideration of Rs2,70,000 on Saturday.
Azizan, daughter of late Allah Bux Bhutto, was divorced on the
allegation of Karo-kari some time back. She is stated to be mother of
two children and was residing with her brother who held the open auction
for her 'sale' at village Badani Bhutto.
A large number of villagers showed interest in the auction that started
with Rs50,000 and ended at Rs270,000. Bilawal Bhutto, 50, of the same
village purchased her for the said amount. Initially he paid Rs210,000
for the girl.
Maulana Azizullah Bhutto performed their nikah [marriage] later.
It is irony of the situation that no one condemned the inhuman act. The
groom will take the bride to his house after paying the rest of the
amount. The auction money was distributed equally among all the brothers
of the girl.
Posted by Robert on December 21, 2009 1:25 PM | 47 Comments
Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us | Buzz up!
The Yemeni Koran – by Jamie Glazov | FrontPage Magazine
The Yemeni Koran – by Jamie Glazov
Jamie Glazov Posted by Jamie Glazov on Dec 14th, 2009 and filed under
FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS
2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History
with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the
author of Canadian Policy Toward Khrushchev’s Soviet Union and is the
co-editor (with David Horowitz) of The Hate America Left. He edited and
wrote the introduction to David Horowitz’s Left Illusions. His new
book is United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.
Email him at jglazov@rogers.com.
Print This Post Print This Post
koran
Frontpage Interview’s guests today are Robert Spencer and Moorthy
Muthuswamy.
Moorthy Muthuswamy is an expert on terrorism in India. He grew up in
India, where he had firsthand experience with political Islam and jihad.
He moved to America in 1984 to pursue graduate studies. In 1992, he
received a doctorate in nuclear physics from Stony Brook University, New
York. Since 1999 he has extensively published ideas on neutralizing
political Islam’s terror war as it is imposed on unbelievers. He is
the author of the new book, Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David
Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of nine books on Islam and
Jihad, a weekly columnist for Human Events and Frontpagemag.com, and has
led numerous seminars for the U.S. military and intelligence
communities. He is the author of the new book, The Complete Infidel’s
Guide to the Koran.
FP: Moorthy Muthuswamy and Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage
Interview.
I’d like to talk to both of you today about the Yemeni Koran.
Moorthy Muthuswamy, let’s begin with you. Tell us about this Yemeni
Koran and what it signifies.
Muthuswamy: Thank you for the opportunity, Jamie. First, some
background.
In 1972, during the restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana’a, in
Yemen, a gravesite containing a mash of old parchment pages was
discovered. It became clear that this parchment hoard is an example of
what is sometimes referred to as a “paper grave.” In this case, the
site was the resting place for tens of thousands of fragments from close
to a thousand different parchment codices of the Koran, the Muslim holy
book.
Using a technique called “carbon dating,” some of the parchment
pages in the Yemeni hoard were dated back to the seventh and eighth
centuries, or Islam’s first two centuries. Until now, three ancient
copies of the Koran were said to exist. One copy in the Library of
Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and another in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul,
Turkey, date from the eighth century. A copy kept in the British Library
in London dates from the late seventh century. But the Sana’a
parchment pages are even older. Moreover, these pages are written in a
script that originates from the Hijaz—the region of Arabia where the
prophet Muhammad purportedly lived. This makes the Yemeni Korans not
only the oldest to have survived, but one of the earliest copies of the
Koran ever.
In 1981, the first scientific undertaking to study the Yemeni Koran was
initiated by a group headed by Gerd-R. Puin, a specialist in Arabic
calligraphy and Koranic paleography based at Saarland University, in
Saarbrücken, Germany. Puin and his group recognized the antiquity of
some of the parchment fragments. Their preliminary inspection revealed
unconventional verse orderings, minor textual variations, and rare
styles of orthography and artistic embellishment. Interestingly, some of
the sheets were also palimpsests—versions very clearly written over
even earlier, washed-off or erased versions.
To quote Puin: “So many Muslims have this belief that everything
between the two covers of the Koran is just God’s unaltered word…
They like to quote the textual work that shows that the Bible has a
history and did not fall straight out of the sky, but until now the
Koran has been out of this discussion. The only way to break through
this wall is to prove that the Koran has a history too. The Sana’a
fragments will help us to do this.”
The idea that the Koran is the literal Word of God, perfect, timeless,
and permanent, is crucial to Islam, in particular, to the Islamists at
the forefront of spreading sharia and jihad. However, some of the
Sana’a fragments revealed small but intriguing aberrations from the
standard Koranic text. Indeed, this evidence compels one to conclude
that the Muslim holy book has undergone a textual evolution rather than
simply the Word of God as revealed in its entirety to the Prophet
Muhammad in the seventh century.
This explosive ramification has made the State of Yemen reluctant to
give further access to the Sana’a fragments. Fortunately, before the
door was shut to Western scholars, another German academic, Graf von
Bothmer, made 35,000 microfilm pictures of the fragments, which remain
at the University of the Saarland.
FP: Robert Spencer, so the Yemeni Koran points to the fact that the
Muslim holy book has undergone a textual evolution. Give us your view of
the meaning and significance here.
Spencer: Moorthy is quite right: the idea that the Koran is perfect and
uncreated, with no textual variants, is central to Islamic
proselytizing. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the
Koran “was memorized by Muhammad and then dictated to his companions.
The text of the Qur’an was cross-checked during the life of the
Prophet. The 114 chapters of the Qur’an have remained unchanged
through the centuries.” This idea is also central to the worldview of
jihadist groups. Osama bin Laden bragged in his 2002 letter to the
American people that the Koran “will remain preserved and unchanged,
after the other Divine books and messages have been changed. The
Qur’an is the miracle until the Day of Judgment.”
The textual variants in the Yemeni Koran, simply by showing that the
text is not always and everywhere the same, explode the mainstream
Islamic belief that the Koran was delivered in perfect form to Muhammad
through the angel Gabriel, and has always been miraculously preserved
from variant readings.
Yet oddly enough, early Islamic traditions recorded in the Hadith assume
the existence of variant readings of the Koran. The impetus for
collecting Muhammad’s revelations into a single volume came after
Muhammad and other important early Muslims started dying off. Late in
the year Muhammad died, 632, a group of Arab tribes that Muhammad had
conquered and brought into the Muslim fold revolted. The first caliph,
Abu Bakr, led the Muslims into battle to subdue them.
The two sides met in the Battle of Yamama, in which some of the Muslims
who had memorized segments of the Koran were killed. One Islamic
tradition notes that “many (of the passages) of the Qur’an that were
sent down were known by those who died on the day of Yamama…but they
were not known (by those who) survived them, nor were they written down,
nor had [the first three caliphs] Abu Bakr, Umar or Uthman (by that
time) collected the Qur’an, nor were they found with even one (person)
after them.” Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Masahif )
The official compiler of the Koran, Zaid ibn Thabit, explained that he
“started locating Quranic material and collecting it from parchments,
scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who
knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba
which I had not found with anybody else.” Zaid’s recollection
testifies to the ad hoc nature of his work. For example, it was Khuzaima
himself, Zaid’s sole source for the last two verses of sura 9, who
approached Zaid and informed him of the omission: “I see you have
overlooked (two) verses and have not written them.” When he had
recited them, an influential companion of Muhammad and the future third
caliph, Utman, declared, “I bear witness that these verses are from
Allah.” And so they were included in the Koran (9:128-129).
Other sections of the Koran, some mandating stringent punishments for
unbelievers and other violators of Islamic law, were lost altogether.
One early Muslim declared, “Let none of you say, ‘I have acquired
the whole of the Qur’an.’ How does he know what all of it is when
much of the Qur’an has disappeared? Rather let him say ‘I have
acquired what has survived’” (As-Suyuti, Al-Itqan fii Ulum
al-Qur’an ). Other Koranic verses dropped out of the text without
replacement. One of these stated, “The religion with Allah is
al-Hanifiyyah (the Upright Way) rather than that of the Jews or the
Christians, and those who do good will not go unrewarded.”
Al-Tirmidhi, the compiler of one of the six collections of Hadith, or
Islamic traditions, that Muslims consider to be the most reliable, said
that this verse was at one time part of sura 98. It is not found there,
however, in Zaid’s canonical version.
FP: Moorthy Muthuswamy?
Muthuswamy: The importance of the Yemeni Koran is that it was an
independent discovery; it physically exists and is distinct from the
Islamic doctrines presently in use.
Political Islam faces ideological difficulties with the likes of the
Sana’a fragments pointing to the textual evolution of the Koran.
Furthermore, as Robert insightfully observes, other inconsistencies in
the contemporary Koran and the Hadith accentuate these difficulties.
The challenge ahead lies in utilizing this breach to decisively break
the back of Islamic radicalism.
Whether it is the latest, in the form of the Fort Hood massacre or the
previous 9/11 attacks, there is one common theme: the armed jihads were
carried out by mosque-going pious Muslim men who claimed to be driven by
Islamic doctrines.
Recently, much progress has been achieved by applying statistical
analysis to the Islamic doctrines themselves in order to understand why
pious Muslims are waging jihad on unbelievers. Specifically, we now
understand that about sixty-one percent of the contents of the Koran are
found to speak ill of unbelievers or call for their violent conquest; at
best only 2.6 percent of the verses of the Koran are noted to show
goodwill toward humanity. Get this: about seventy five percent of
Muhammad’s biography (Sira) consists of jihad waged on unbelievers.
While there might be some subjectivity to the above analysis, the
overwhelming thrust of the inferences should be noted. Moreover, this
overall thrust exposes the sheer absurdity of excusing the
Koran-inspired terror on the so-called “selective interpretation” of
the Muslim holy book or its “verses being taken out of context.”
Additionally, there is the sharia—the so-called Islamic Law,
legitimized by the Koran. The medieval sharia has stifled development
and integration of Muslim communities, and has indirectly helped channel
Muslim energies toward the outlet of jihad.
Let us discuss the evolution of Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood
jihadist. Consider a hypothetical scenario: the majority of the
worshippers in the mosques Hasan attended believed that the Koran
couldn’t be taken literally; that that there are many mainstream
Islamic sites that emphasized the textual evolution of the Muslim holy
book. What would have happed? It is very unlikely that Hasan would have
given the pro-jihad seminar (the precursor to the Fort Hood massacre) in
Walter Reed Medical Center.
Unfortunately, reality is just the opposite. Saudi-funded Wahhabi
ideologies that emphasize the literal interpretation of the Koran have
played a longstanding role at grievously influencing most American
mosque goers.
An April 2001 survey by CAIR found 69 percent of Muslims in America
saying it is “absolutely fundamental” or “very important” to
have Salafi (similar to radical Wahhabi Islamic ideology) teachings at
their mosques (67 percent of respondents also expressed agreement with
the statement “America is an immoral, corrupt society”). The
Internet-based mainstream Islamic portals too, almost without exception,
preach radical ideologies, backed by the Muslim holy book.
Based on the above analysis we can unequivocally state that the Koran,
through its contents and their literal interpretations, acts as an
albatross around the neck of Muslim communities. Yet, our national
security policy in its various incarnations builds on the fundamentally
flawed assumption that the Koran is a constructive element in the lives
of Muslims.
The challenge of mitigating the radical Islamic threat indeed comes down
to questioning the very basis that the Koran is the Word of God.
The Yemeni Koran, backed by Koranic inconsistencies might provide a
fresh impetus in this direction.
FP: Robert Spencer, final thoughts?
Spencer: Moorthy is right. PowerPoint slides on which Hasan proposed to
show “what the Koran inculcates in the minds of Muslims and the
potential implications this may have for the U.S. military” have come
to light. The implications are many, and important.
Hasan makes the case that Muslims must not fight against other Muslims
(as is mandated by Koran 4:92), and that the Koran also mandates both
defensive and offensive jihad against unbelievers, in order to impose
upon those unbelievers the hegemony of Islamic law. He quotes the
Koranic verse calling for war against the “People of the Book” (that
is, mainly Jews and Christians) until they “pay the tax in
acknowledgment of [Islamic] superiority and they are in a state of
subjection” (9:29).
Hasan seems then to have been telling the assembled (and no doubt
stunned) physicians that Muslims had a religious obligation to make war
against and subjugate non-Muslims as inferiors under their rule. But
surely that is “extremist” Islam, no? No. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee,
Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law of the
International Islamic University in Islamabad, in a book on Islamic law
explains that “Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with
the People of the Book…is one of two things: it is either their
conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.” (Jizyah is the tax
referred to in Koran 9:29.)
Nyazee concludes: “This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the
Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of
Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be
exercised only after subjugation” of non-Muslims.”
Likewise Majid Khadduri, an internationally renowned Iraqi scholar of
Islamic law, explained in his 1955 book War and Peace in the Law of
Islam that “the Islamic state, whose principal function was to put
God’s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant
reigning ideology over the entire world….The jihad was therefore
employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and
the establishment of an imperial world state.”
And Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini put it this way: “Islam makes it
incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or
incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other]
countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the
world….But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam
wants to conquer the whole world….There are hundreds of other
[Qur’anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims
to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion
that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who
make such a claim.”
Hasan’s Islam also coincides with that of the jihad terror group
Hamas, which has announced its intention, once fully and firmly
ensconced in power, to collect that Koranic tax – jizyah – from the
non-Muslims luckless enough to live within its domains. Hasan would also
no doubt find heads nodding in agreement with his explanation of Islam
among the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamic organization
(which operates under a variety of names in the United States) that is
dedicated in its own words to a “grand Jihad in eliminating and
destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its
miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it
is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other
religions.”
No one in government or law enforcement has ever made any attempt to
determine how prevalent such understandings of Islam are among Muslims
in the United States. But if they are not Nidal Hasan’s
eccentricities, but indeed mainstream views of Islam, it would be of
cardinal importance for those sworn to protect us to begin making such
an attempt now. The lives of innocent people depend on it. As Moorthy
explained, the Yemeni Koran could help provide a way.
FP: Moorthy Muthuswamy and Robert Spencer, thank you for joining
Frontpage Interview.
•COMMENTS
•Guest
goosebumps 9 hours ago
What is amazing to me is that there are still so many people in America
who just don't get it. I can understand Spencer's frustration when he
says he would spit on anyone who says "I spit upon those foolish souls
who make such a claim.” I, too, feel a loss of respect for people who
unquestioningly have bought into the whole PC crap and think through
this tunnel vision of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. They are
our modern day "Moonies."
I think our government right now is so transfixed by all the power they
have and all the "wonderful" things they are going to do for (to) us
that the Islamic happenings throughout the world are minor, minor,
minor. They are letting the Muslims create the next crisis that they
will not let "go to waste." They are so drunk with power that that is
all they can do. If I hear Nancy Pelosi say the words "for the people"
again I will absolutely vomit and send it to her.
I think our next government in 2010 had better be one that has all the
blinders off and has the "balls" (regardless of the sex of the person)
to take the bull by the horns and out our American foot down hard on
these idiots who follow this ridiculous religion, this band of mankind.
•samnigromd 8 hours ago
Thank you for the elaboration. It is about time the word gets out about
this. Every one needs to know the facts in The Infidels' Guide to the
Koran....Hopefully soon, Islam will stop waging war with the rest of the
world....
•Yephora 8 hours ago
Thank you for this enlightening interview. Now what are we in the West
supposed to do about the cancer of Political Correctness that has
paralyzed the actions of those whose job it is to protect us? Their PC
sickness makes them incapable of even accepting such information -- nevermind actually doing something strategic with it.
•pwood20 6 hours ago
If only all those politicians and others calling Islam a "religion of
peace" would read the Koran and not in the edited version given out by
CAIR, the would not be making such statements. Find an older copy, not
one of the new sanitized versions destributed in the United States.
•ciccio 6 hours ago
The bad thing about the Yemeni koran is that it is surrounded by so much
controversy that Yemen no longer allows anyone to even look at it. It is
stored in totally inadequate conditions, there is not even a smoke alarm
in the building, it is well likely that one of these days there will be
an "accident" and the whole place will go up in flames.
The good thing is that when this hoard was discovered, the Yemeni
government had neither a clue on how to investigate it or the funds to
do so. They got German and other European experts who carefully
separated each scrap and photographed them, sent all the films straight
back to Europe where they are still working on it. In time the truth
will come out, knowing Islam their truth will be another crusader plot
against their beloved prophet.
•shadeeelmasry 5 hours ago
As someone whose profession it is to study Islam academically, this
article is lacking for a number of reasons.
1. None of the commentators seem to be specialists in Islam.
2. I see no reference to what Muslim scholars have to say. A reliable
article must explore every angle.
3. All Muslims know that there are variants of the Quran, that some
words are different. That before the different recitations were
codified, there were "seven ahruf."
4. Let us say the Yemeni Quran has different verse order, or new verses
altogether. The article does not tell us how they alter the message of
the Quran, if at all. That is important, because, beyond the words and
letters, it is the message that is important.
5. I do not see how the Yemeni Quran has any link to terrorism or Major
Nidal Hassan.
•davorino 2 hours ago
Ya, we want to get the message straight. Forget about the variations,
the message is what is important. Just so we're clear on the message, it
is "kill the unbelievers", right? We wouldn't want to lose sight of the
beautiful message of the religion of peace.
You do understand that the article was intended to show that the koran
has not remained the same since the beginning, which indicates that it
is not from god. Oh I understand that the only way to correctly read the
koran is to have a muslim scholar tell you what it says, but I would
rather have an unbiased reading of the koran, thank you.
•DemocracyFirst 2 hours ago
In fact, the article quotes Muslim scholars. You can go to their sources
directly where, I am sure, you will verify the accuracy of the quotes.
It is tragically fact that Islam is fundamentally a religion of war,
violence and the subjugation of women and non Muslims. Which is why
everywhere on this planet that Muslim nations border on non Muslim
nations there is active or simmering war. It is why wherever a sizeable
Muslim minority lives, there is active or simmering civil war. It is why
Muslim women are subjugated almost everywhere.
But this article provides hope. If Muslims come to generally believe the
Koran is not the precise word of Allah, that it has been changed by
people, then the door opens to further revisions and more creditable, if
rationalized, interperations of time and context. Thus, those who say
the violent passages refer only to Saudi Arabia of the 6th and 7th
centuries, rather than apply forever into the future until all the world
is Muslim, can reform the faith.
•Muslim + Scholar = Oxymoron or just plain moron
Davidka 58 minutes ago
A fascinating account. No doubt due to the enormous implications of the
Yemeni discovery, the mainstream media have totally ignored the story.
What to make of the "perfect, unchangeable" Koran when competing
versions start cropping up? The discovery has the potential to undercut
extreme Islam. It offers an opening for sane Moslems to push for a
human, decent version of their faith.
Right now, it is extremely important that the scholarly community demand
that copies of the whole set of documents be made available to everyone.
It would be an easy task to put the whole archive online. This would
enormously speed up the task of analyzing, translating and studying the
documents. And their implications.
Getting to the Root of Understanding Islam – by David Swindle |
FrontPage Magazine
umnists
Submit Your Article
DHFC Bookstore
Donate Click here for Old Website
Getting to the Root of Understanding Islam – by David Swindle
http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/85d8cafb0c2f4a9e2bda95108cc8c122?s=28&d=ht
tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3
Fs%3D28&r=G Posted by David Swindle on Dec 23rd, 2009 and filed under
FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS
2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Print This Post Print This Post
Infidel_guide_Koran_Spencer1
Few would consider Robert Spencer, author and prominent scholar of
Islam, to be a radical.
Spencer’s politics fit snuggly within the mainstream of conservative
thought. He appears regularly at both Human Events and FrontPage
Magazine. His books are published by the stalwart conservative press
Regnery.
His rhetoric and demeanor are hardly radical either. Read his books and
you’ll find sly, witty humor to complement his often depressing
subject matter. His talks are no different. He presents a friendly
demeanor. Here’s an example from the recent Restoration Weekend:
So in what manner is Spencer possessed of the Radical Spirit?
To understand this we need to understand what it means to be radical.
The first definition of the term (coming from its etymology) sums it up:
“Arising from or going to a root or source.”
Thus Spencer’s radicalism soon becomes clear to those familiar with
his books and his essential blog, JihadWatch. His principle project is
this: to go to the root of understanding Islam. To strip away the
obfuscations of the Left and alleged “moderate” Islamist apologists
and to really demonstrate just what this religion is all about.
And so his newest book, The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran is
in a sense his most radical work yet. In the past Spencer has hit
numerous Islam-related topics. Last year’s Stealth Jihad looked at how
many Islamists have shifted tactics from violence to quiet subversion.
Previous books focused on Muhammad and the differences between Islam and
Christianity.
Now he examines the Koran itself. In twelve accessible chapters – each
interspersed with sidebars and quotes in Idiot’s Guide fashion –
Spencer gives a crash course on the Koran’s origins, its
interpretation and its contents. He explains how the book was assembled
and why it’s so difficult to understand. (It’s not even written
chronologically!) He also shows how pervasively anti-Christian,
anti-Semitic, misogynistic, intolerant, and violent attitudes are
embedded within this book revered by more than a billion people.
The experience of reading The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran
brought to mind two other “radical” texts, each exploring a
different kind of faith.
The first is Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts about the Sixties,
the classic critique of the New Left by Peter Collier and David
Horowitz. Destructive Generation is a dense book that overwhelms with
the sheer number, variety, and intensity of its facts and arguments. One
completes it almost exhausted. Spencer’s Infidel’s Guide produces a
similar effect. The author packs his text with so many quotes from the
Koran, the Hadith, and prominent Muslim commentators that it’s
profoundly difficult to argue with him. (Which perhaps explains why the
usual anti-Spencer retort is to slur him as a bigot and not bother to
even quote him.)
The second is this year’s Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden
Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) by
agnostic New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman. The new book by the author
of Misquoting Jesus and God’s Problem provided a more thoughtful
alternative to critiquing religion than the Christopher Hitchens/Richard
Dawkins militant atheism.
Spencer’s approach to the Koran is identical to Ehrman’s to the New
Testament. He’s a nonbeliever who seeks to look at a holy text
critically, examining how it was made and what the text itself actually
says – not how it’s allegedly divine and infallible. Yet why is
Spencer the “bigot” of the two? Why is it acceptable to look at
Christianity critically but “racist” to do so for Islam? Why have we
built an advantage to our enemies right into the fabric of our
“politically correct” culture?
And it’s here where we return to understanding Spencer as a radical.
Because Spencer is not just a radical intellectual – willing to take
an idea to its root no matter how maligned the left-dominated
intellectual culture might make him. He’s also a radical activist.
Consider another of the American Heritage Dictionary’s definitions of
radical: “One who advocates fundamental or revolutionary changes in
current practices, conditions, or institutions.”
Possessed of the conservative’s understanding of human nature and
loyalty to individual liberty he knows the only way one can both
effectively and morally change society is to change people’s ideas.
And so the “fundamental or revolutionary change” that he advocates
is a revision in the way Americans understand Islam.
Let us support him as he pursues this intellectual revolution. Our very
society is dependent upon its success.
MULTICULTURALISM – CRIME, FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
UK fails to halt female genital mutilation
Nina Lakhani
The Independent, 20 December 2009.
Hundreds of British schoolgirls are facing the terrifying prospect of
female genital mutilation (FGM) over the Christmas holidays as experts
warn the practice continues to flourish across the country. Parents
typically take their daughters back to their country of origin for FGM
during school holidays, but The Independent on Sunday has been told
that "cutters" are being flown to the UK to carry out the mutilation at
"parties" involving up to 20 girls to save money. The police face
growing criticism for failing to prosecute a single person for carrying
out FGM in 25 years; new legislation from 2003 which prohibits taking a
girl overseas for FGM has also failed to secure a conviction. Experts
say the lack of convictions, combined with the Government's failure to
invest enough money in education and prevention strategies, mean the
practice continues to thrive. Knowledge of the health risks and of the
legislation remains patchy among practising communities, while beliefs
about the supposed benefits for girls remain firm, according to
research by the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development
(Forward). As a result, specialist doctors and midwives are struggling
to cope with increasing numbers of women suffering from long-term
health problems, including complications during pregnancy and
childbirth. Campaigners are urging ministers to take co-ordinated steps
to work with communities here and overseas to change deep-seated
cultural attitudes and stamp out this extreme form of violence against
women. ... An estimated 70,000 women living in the UK have undergone
FGM, and 20,000 girls remain at risk, according to Forward. The
practice is common in 28 African countries, including Somalia, Sudan
and Nigeria, as well as some Middle Eastern and Asian countries such as
Malaysia and Yemen. It is generally considered to be an essential rite
of passage to suppress sexual pleasure, preserve girls' purity and
cleanliness, and is necessary for marriage in many communities even
now. It has no religious significance. The most common age for the
procedure is between eight and 11 but it can be carried out just after
birth or just before marriage.
Sunday 3 January 2010
Posts
